A 5.0 magnitude earthquake was registered on Saturday in the Pacific Ocean near Russia’s Kuril Islands, the regional branch of the Geophysical Survey of the Russian Academy of Sciences told Sputnik.
The head of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk seismological station said that residents of Severo-Kurilsk had felt the 5.0 magnitude tremor.
“The 5.0 magnitude earthquake was registered at 8:28 a.m. on November 14 [20:28 on Friday GMT] 95 kilometres [over 59 miles] east of the town of Severo-Kurilsk at a depth of 50 kilometres,” the head of the station added.
The Kuril Islands are located in a seismically active zone known as the Ring of Fire, which is regularly affected by powerful earthquakes. On November 5, 1952, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a huge tsunami that devastated Severo-Kurilsk, leaving more than 2,300 people killed. Earlier this month, another 5.0 magnitude earthquake was registered in the Pacific Ocean near the coast of the northern Kuril Islands.